Positive Place Initiative connects IU East, Wayne County Foundation with community project

Fredricka Joyner, associate professor of business administration and organization behavior, is working in conjunction with the Wayne County Foundation on a professional service and civic engagement project, the Positive Place Initiative. The initiative connects and applies the expertise of an IU East faculty member with a strategic community issue in the Richmond and Wayne County region.

The Positive Place Initiative is funded by an Indiana Campus Compact (ICC) Scholarship of Engagement Grant of $3,000. The Lilly Endowment provides funding for this program.

“I am very excited to have the opportunity to support and build on the important work already taking place in the community. I see this as another way to continue to strengthen the ties between IU East and important regional initiatives,” Joyner said.

The Positive Place Initiative grew out of the work of a group of community leaders concerned about economic vitality in Richmond and east central Indiana. IU East is partnering with the Wayne County Foundation to develop strategies and sustain a culturally and economically vibrant community. This project serves as a demonstration project, increasing visibility and awareness of opportunities to forge meaningful linkages between expertise that resides within the institution and community issues.

Executive Director of the Wayne County Foundation Stephen Borchers said, “This project will engage IU East faculty and a wide range of community leaders in new ways of working together and developing more positive approaches to solving critical, long-term problems.”

According to Joyner, this innovative strategy would be aimed at creating a “positive buzz” about and within the Richmond/Wayne County region. In her grant proposal, Joyner said interventions designed to create an “intentional culture” customized to support strategic initiatives have been gaining attention over the last decade. To date, most of this work has taken place in an organizational context. This engagement would focus on developing an action plan to create an intentional community culture and would be based on the models and approaches that have emerged over the last decade, Joyner added.

As a result of the project, an action plan would be formed that will incorporate intervention strategies to help the community to improve.

For more information, contact Fredricka Joyner, associate professor of business administration and organization behavior, at (765) 973-8412 or email fjoyner@iue.edu.